Effects of leucine supplemented diets in salmon under normal and stressed condition
The trial aims to explore the beneficial effects of the dietary leucine requirement levels in feed intake, muscle growth, fat deposition and improved resistance to stress. In aquaculture production, fish are submitted to several types of stress (confinement, handling, food deprivation and diseases), and specific dietary requirements may differ under such conditions, especially with regard to amino acids. Understanding the nutritional requirements of fish is one of the key to promote a good growth and safeguard fish health in the aquaculture industry and a selection of dietary levels is a need to boost the physiology of the fish under stressful conditions. We will focus on describing the positive effects of leucine, and how metabolism responds to allostatic stress, enabling salmon to be more robust and maintain growth despite stressful conditions. The new insights gained from the trial will be utilized to test relevant commercial ingredients with the aim to compose future diets that results in improved growth of robust and healthy fish. The three R’s (replacement, reduction and refinement) will be strictly implemented in the experiment. Fish health and feed intake will constantly monitored and if signs of abnormal behavior or infection are observed, the fish will be euthanized following the present ethical guidelines.
A total number of 800 Atlantic salmon, allocated in 16 tanks (50 fish per tank) will be used in the present trial. All fish will be PIT tagged, however only half of the fish (n=400) will be subjected to the stress procedures. To keep track of the fish health and growth rate, fish will be pit-tagged and effort will be provide to decrease the stress from the handling by using a light anesthesia. For tissue and plasma collection, fish will be anesthetized with a high dosage of tricaine. Organs and tissues will provide the insights into the signaling pathways. At the moment, there is no available model (in silico or in vitro) that can illuminate these questions. In silico or in vitro models can be further developed, but they must be based and validated with robust experimental data sets, such as the one described in this experimental set-up. The facility and all personnel involved in the trial have the necessary authorization and training to carry out the experiment according to Norwegian and European legislation. Chosen method of stress will be chasing, which will be carried out every second day for the duration of the trial. The fish will not be handled in any other way making the expected harm to the fish low.
A total number of 800 Atlantic salmon, allocated in 16 tanks (50 fish per tank) will be used in the present trial. All fish will be PIT tagged, however only half of the fish (n=400) will be subjected to the stress procedures. To keep track of the fish health and growth rate, fish will be pit-tagged and effort will be provide to decrease the stress from the handling by using a light anesthesia. For tissue and plasma collection, fish will be anesthetized with a high dosage of tricaine. Organs and tissues will provide the insights into the signaling pathways. At the moment, there is no available model (in silico or in vitro) that can illuminate these questions. In silico or in vitro models can be further developed, but they must be based and validated with robust experimental data sets, such as the one described in this experimental set-up. The facility and all personnel involved in the trial have the necessary authorization and training to carry out the experiment according to Norwegian and European legislation. Chosen method of stress will be chasing, which will be carried out every second day for the duration of the trial. The fish will not be handled in any other way making the expected harm to the fish low.